Ten new members were inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame on Friday 13 April and the great trainer Tommy ‘TJ’ Smith was elevated to Legend status.
The official induction ceremony was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney on Friday evening and was held in conjunction with the 2012 Australian Racing Conference.
Dual Melbourne Cup winning jockey Jim Cassidy was one of ten inductees into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
Affectionately known as ‘Pumper', Cassidy joins an esteemed list of inductees across the categories of jockey, horse, trainer and associate and fittingly has been inducted at a ceremony in his home town of Sydney.
Cassidy joins modern day contemporaries Damien Oliver and Darren Beadman in the Hall of Fame as jockeys who currently still ply their trade today and is the only jockey to be inducted still competing in Australian racing.
In the jockey category, Cassidy joins Bernborough's rider Athol Mulley among this year's inductees while the 2012 trainer inductees are Melbourne Cup winning trainer Grahame Heagney and two-time Victorian trainers premiership winner Theo Lewis.
For the first time since 2005, the Australian Racing Hall of Fame has inducted five of the sports equine heroes.
International hero and ‘bargain buy' Takeover Target joins 1991 Caulfield and Melbourne Cup heroine Let's Elope, ten-time Group 1 champion Octagonal, the Tommy Smith-trained Redcraze and multiple Group 1 victor High Caste are the five horse inductees for 2012.
One of the men synonymous with the legendary Phar Lap, his famous strapper Aaron Treve ‘Tommy' Woodcock, is the inductee in the associate category in 2012.
